1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to compact zoom lenses, and more particularly to zoom lenses in which the provision of compensating for the image shift is made in the rearmost lens unit and the stop is arranged in so appropriate a position as to achieve a minimization of the size of the entire lens system, so that the optical performance is improved to suit photographic cameras or video cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
The typical zoom lens that has been used in the photographic cameras or video cameras is of the type shown in FIG. 1, comprising a first lens unit 11 of positive refractive power for focusing, a second lens unit 12 of negative refractive power axially movable in one direction mainly for varying the image magnification, a third lens unit 13 of negative refractive power axially movable in a convex path toward the front for compensating for the image shift, a fixed fourth lens unit 14 of positive refractive power which is put in use as necessity arises to make almost afocal the light beam passed through the first to third lens units and a fixed fifth lens unit 15 of positive refractive power for forming an image of an object on a focal plane. The stop 16 is, in many cases, located between the third and fourth units or between the fourth and fifth units.
The zoom lens of FIG. 1 has its zooming provision made in the second and third lens units, and its stop positioned far away from the first lens unit or close to the fifth lens unit. For these reasons, to admit of the effective off-axis pencil of rays at a certain level over the focusing and zooming ranges, a large diameter is given to the first lens unit. Hence there was a tendency to make the entire lens system bulky and heavy. In such a lens system, when focusing, for the first lens unit is moved, a large driving power is required. For example, the auto-focus apparatus when to be applied thereto necessitated a motor of much larger torque. Another problem was that the consumption of electrical energy, too, comes to increase.
The consequence was that, in view of the recent trend of unifying the video camera with the video tape recorder, such a photographic lens was not very suited to the new video camera, since it called for a large reduction of the proportion of the photographic system.
In addition to its compact form and light weight, the photographic lens in the video camera is required to be of the zoom type with a high optical performance. Yet another requirement is that the space between the rear vertex of the lens and the image pickup tube or CCD device is long enough to accommodate the protection glass plate, the stripe filter for color separation, the low pass filter and others, in other words, the back focal length is sufficiently long.
Since the various factors as such should be taken into account in designing a photographic lens for the new video camera, for all the requirements are fulfilled, it becomes difficult to preserve the optical performance at an excellent level. This is reflected to a decrease of the contrast of image.
There is a technique of allowing the fixed stop to be located between the second and third lens units disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 931,537 filed Nov. 14, 1986 and 063,434 filed June 18, 1987 both assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In this connection, however, it should be pointed out that, in both cases, the direction of movement of the zoom unit is different from that for the invention.